Seven Last Words

Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.

Forgive them, Father. Yet, I am not sure whether they really know not what they do. Something tells me that they know what they’re doing. To some extent, I got a feeling that sometimes, they intend to do what they do. Forgive those who mock women in their campaign speeches. Forgive those who spread lies to advance their campaigns. Forgive those who use their positions to pursue personal agenda. Forgive those who harass simple folk to impose their authority over some territory. Forgive those who seem to pleasure themselves in threatening and mongering fear among less powerful people. Forgive them, though they know what they do.

Today, we can be with Him in Paradise.

But this comes to those who see their own faults, not to those who throw insults to those who suffer, to the underprivileged, to the marginalized. Yet, there seem to be more people who challenge in disrespect those who are downtrodden in society. What I find appalling is that when one act of disrespect was brought to light for correction, more blatant disregard of the standards sprout from all over, from the capital to down south, left and right. One spews out disrespect. Then, two more spit more foul contempt. We need more people to call them out.

Behold your son. Behold your mother.

Does anyone even see other people as family? Does anyone even care for the person next door as a father/mother or son/daughter? Perhaps, some do. Perhaps, some still do. Yet, some people in our society look down upon some sectors as object of ridicule to elicit attention in the form of laughter. Some would view other sectors as opponents on the other fence who need to be won over in disputes. Some target other nations as territory to be conquered. Some treat other citizens as people from whom they could strip off resources.

I can not help but think of mothers who lost sons in extra-judicial killings. I pray for justice.

My God, our God, don’t forsake us.

Sometimes, the feeling of abandonment creeps through our psyche. I think of those who run for public office and wonder why are they at each other’s throats. Is it for the opportunity to serve or selfish personal agenda? Is the investigation of the legality of an arrest have something to do with the welfare of the impoverished? Are these all to aggrandize one’s party? Which side then is right? I am tempted not to care at all. Yet, what would that make me? What do we get in defending a piece of land surrounded by marine waters on which threaten of armada of gigantic war vessels? O, Lord, don’t forsake us.

We thirst.

Oh yes, we thirst. We thirst for candidates who have equitable respect for all sectors of society, especially for the marginalized who need more assistance. We thirst for leaders who would stand as role models of morality, of dignity. We thirst for people in government to work together for what the people really need for progress. We thirst for peace, for security on our borders. We thirst for a day when we would not fear for aggression or invasion. We thirst for peace among warring nations. We thirst for nations that work together, and not push to make themselves great again.

It is finished.

We yearn for all this evil to finish. We yearn for the deceit to finish. We wait and hope for this utter disregard for fellow citizens to finish. We yearn for this arrogant abuse of power to finish. We long for the destruction wrought by war to finish. We grip tightly in the hope that these threats to prices of goods, to business, to commerce, to the economy be finished. Will it ever finish? The struggles seem to extend further; and more seem to sprout anew. Our forefathers have fought for freedoms, for peace, for progress, yet new tyrants wage new wars.

Yet, over what really matters, it has been finished.

Father, into your hands we commend all these.

We commend into your hands all the offenses. We entrust to you all the arrogance that challenge us. We put our faith on mothers who lost sons, and sons who lost mothers. We know that you will take care of these feelings of forsakenness. We commend to you these parched throats of thirst. We entrust to you the corruption that creeps in every community. We deliver to you this chaotic confusion of what is true or not. We commend to you battles that break borders. At the end of it all, there is an end to it all.

“So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander…” 1 Peter 2:1